Intersex people are born with physical sex characteristics which, in the logic of the medical and societal gender understanding, cannot be assigned clearly as male or female. Physical characteristics like chromosome, genitals, hormones or the distribution of muscle mass can have various forms.

Intersex people are defined by their medical categorisation, whereas a gender identity as trans* means a partial or full discrepancy to the gender one was assigned at birth. Intersex people can also be trans*, for example if they were assigned with a male or female gender at birth. This occurs for example, when intersex people are not categories as such or physical characteristics are assigned to the supposed male or female gender by operational surgery, which is, among others, seen as disregarding human rights by Amnesty International. Intersex people can also identify as cis when they identify with the gender they were assigned with at birth.